Things You Should Know! From your ACO! A Look Back at 2012: Animals By the Numbers

Thursday, January 24, 2013

Click image to enlarge

Amanda Beaulieu

By Amanda Bealieu

Sanford News Guest Columnist

For the past eight months, I have been working with Sanford-Springvale Animal Control Officer Lauren Masellas as part of Sanford High School’s Extended Learning Opportunities program. During the past months, Officer Masellas has been compiling statistics about the animal complaints and concerns in our area. Our hope is to focus our efforts on the calls that are the most persistent each year, in order to better serve the needs of our community.

Officer Masellas’ overall number of calls remains fairly consistent at just under 2,000 each year. This year, she and I have concluded that most calls pertained to pets getting loose and animals being hit by cars. These two forms of calls have something in common. We most likely have had more animals hit by cars this year than usual due to more animals getting loose. In order to prevent this from happening, owners can find suitable living arrangements that work for their pets better — for example, they can fence in their yards or use runners. Most pets that we find running loose are brought to the Kennebunk animal shelter to be held until someone claims them; however, state law only requires the shelter to hold stray or found cats for only two days and dogs for six. Many owners wait days, or even weeks, before filing a lost-pet report. Please keep in mind that if you waste time waiting for your pet to return on its own, you may find it is no longer your pet! If your animal gets loose or goes missing, don’t wait to call us to see if we have seen them or picked them up! The more time that passes, the bigger the issue.

While on this topic, we would also like to state that a total of 538 animals — two birds, two ferrets, five guinea pigs, one hamster, one mouse, nine rabbits, eight rats, 381 cats, and 129 dogs — were all delivered from the Sanford-Springvale area to the Animal Welfare Society’s (AWS) shelter in West Kennebunk in 2012. That is an extremely large amount of animals for just one year! If there is any way possible you can help this number go down, it would be greatly appreciated by not only Officer Masellas, myself, and the AWS, but the animals too.

We are also happy to report that the statistics have shown that the number of stray cats decreased in 2012. We believe the reason is due to the low-income discount spay and neuter clinic at the AWS in Kennebunk. AWS spayed and neutered a total of 39 cats in 2012. A PetSmart grant also contributed to spaying and neutering a total of 287 cats, as well as offering vaccinations for only $5. If you haven’t taken advantage of this opportunity, it’s not too late! Call (207) 985-3244, ext. 120, for details. Spaying and neutering cats has been successful because it has reduced the reproduction process. This has helped immensely with cutting back on the number of cats that are produced. This means less stray cats!

This year, Officer Masellas will try to focus her attention on more responsible ownerships. There is a better solution than just writing more summonses or increasing and enforcing the town’s impound fee, even though we have not found that solution quite yet! If you have any questions or suggestions at all related to animals, please contact Officer Lauren Masellas at 324-3644.

Amanda Beaulieu is a student at Sanford High School who is participating in an Extended Learning Opportunity, a program that pairs local students with mentors in the community in order to expand their education outside of the classroom and give them real-world experience.